Carpenter, Mississippi, is a small farming community about 4 miles south of Utica, in Copiah County. At the corner of Highway 18 and Dentville Road stands a wood schoolhouse.
According to Preservation in Mississippi, the school dates from 1921 and was built according to State Plan No. 3 N.S. As you can see, it is is poor condition, but 10 years ago, it was reasonably intact.
Like all schools in the pre-air-conditioning and pre-electricity era, it featured large windows to let in the light and air. It must have been cheerful for students to be surrounded by nature, and maybe a bit distracting. Let's see: modern air-conditioned school with high walls that looks like prison architecture versus cheerful cottage with expansive windows and natural light.
If anyone can tell me more about this site, I welcome the information.
(All photgraphs taken with a Panasonic G1 camera with 14-45 mm G Vario f/3.5 lens, tripod-mounted. The map (Figure 1) is from ESRI® ArcMap GIS software.)
5 comments:
If there is a dog in there, to beware of, then these folks should probably be investigated. Union!
I did a post about this school and its "twins" a while back: http://misspreservation.com/2010/07/14/hey-havent-i-seen-you-before/
It was built in 1921 and is an early standardized plan disseminated by the State Dept. of Education. I have been sad to watch it fall into this state--10 years ago it was in pretty good shape.
My grandmother and most of her siblings actually attended school here. She still lives right down the road. I appreciate that you have photos to document - it is sadly gone now.
I attended Carpenter school from 1946-49. It was my 1st through 3rd grades of school. In the three grades I was there were the last years the school was open. Copiah County worked out a plan with Hinds County to allow us to attend Utica Consolidated School because it was much closer to Utica than to Crystal Springs. In my three years at Carpenter there were only two others in the class. Elizabeth Ann Warren Hood and Billy Everett Gunter were the other two! There probably were less than 25 total students ever at the school at any one time.
Unknown, thank you for the interesting memories about your years at the Carpenter School. A comment above noted that the school is gone, but I have not been back to the site myself.
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